Eric Clapton is the same old blues riff black guys were playing years before him. I feel that many were robbed of the sound and he made it due to being white.
Wow. A very broad statement that glossed over a lot of musical and socio-political history.
Eric Clapton is absolutely a student of the blues. As were many of his peers, like Keith Richards. It was that young generation of British musicians that came to appreciate the work of black American bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson and others WAY before those artists got wide recognition in the United States. And that was due in large part to the blues being regarded as "race music" in America, and that segregation of music led to white Americans not knowing or appreciating that work. Americans essentially had to wait for their own music to be filtered through these young British musicians like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, et al before coming to appreciate their own countrymen and their music. Your statement is correct to a degree, but the fault is not with Clapton. The original blues artists did not gain traction with American audiences because of the racial divisions in America.
I read the Clapton autobiography. And even after having read the book, I feel that he is still something of an enigma. He seems hard to pin down as a person for a number of reasons. There are his substance abuse problems, of course. He also had a somewhat non-traditional upbringing, as the son of an English girl who got pregnant during WWII to a Canadian RAF pilot. And that no doubt affected his sense of identity. But he seemed to find something pure in the form of the blues.
I'll freely admit, I don't really care for his work with the Yardbirds. I find it unremarkable. But his work with John Mayall is where he blossomed as a player. In Cream he was holding his own with two other virtuosos and started to come into his own as a singer and songwriter. The breakup of Cream actually coincides with the time when Clapton was exposed to the work of The Band. It's even been said that he would have loved to join The Band given the opportunity. And it was that work that led to the tone and songs of the Blind Faith record as well as Clapton's subsequent solo records.
Looking at his discography, there are definitely some strong periods in Clapton's career: Blind Faith, Derek & The Dominos, 461 Ocean Boulevard, and his solo debut. But drinking and drugs definitely adled him and his talent for a long time. To his credit, Clapton was finally able to get clean in the 1980's. And thankfully he didn't end up dead like some of the his peers, like Hendrix. I think Clapton has done some great work since cleaning up. But I'm also left wondering what might have been with him if he had been able to manage his substance problems better in the 70's, which should have been the prime of his career.
If you don't get him? Fine. Music is art. It's a subjective experience. Take it as that.
